The memo is currently under investigation by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office for allegations the public record was tampered with, which was uncovered by an attorney representing two city employees in the administrative hearing.

The document was sent Sept. 19, 2011 from Meyers to then-acting Public Works Director Harold Hall to inform Hall that the two employees — Edmund Johnson and Tim London — were to report to the city’s construction and maintenance department as laborers and they refused to do so. Both employees were eventually fired for insubordination.

At a previous hearing date, Meyers testified that he did not draft the 2011 memo, which was subsequently put in the employee files of Johnson and London, but that it was sent to him by fax or email and he signed off on the document.

The attorney for Johnson and London in the case, Jack Butler, then submitted an open records request for the fax or email with the city after the Meyers’s testimony and it turned up nothing. He believes if Meyers can’t testify to the truth of the document, then the original author has violated the law.

In the administrative hearing, Butler alleges his clients were retaliated against for their participation in the criminal investigation of Mayor Tony F. Mack’s half brother Stanley “Muscles” Davis. In September 2012, Davis was sentenced to six years for two counts of official misconduct for accepting two cash payments to perform private work at a house where no repairs were needed as a Trenton Water Works employee.

On Thursday, Johnson testified to the alleged horrors of working at the Trenton Water Works after Mack became mayor.

Johnson said he had knowledge of activities, such as illegal water hookups, performed by Davis and another Water Works employee while they were on the clock.

Johnson began cooperating with the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office in the summer of 2010 and reported to them his investigation of one of the illegal hookups on a house on Pennington Road, he testified.

Davis apparently wasn’t shy flaunting the money he made from the hookups either.

“Prior to his apprehension, he came into the water utility that morning,” Johnson said. “He came in with a wad of money and he began to show it around that he had received that money.”

Davis was arrested later that day.

Johnson, a water assistant distribution technician, said he wasn’t surprised when he found out he was on the layoff list in September 2011.

“There were innuendos and I had been informed by Mr. Davis and Charles Hall that we weren’t going to be there too long,” Johnson said. “The illegal activity that was going on and (Davis) wanted me to cover it up and I refused.”

Shortly after the layoffs, Johnson and London were given another chance to work for the city in an order by the Civil Service Commission to relegate them as water meter readers.

They reported on Sept. 19, 2011 as stated on the order, but never read any water meters. Instead, they were asked to be laborers in the city’s construction department.

Johnson took issue with this on his first day of work and met with the Harold Hall, the then-acting public works director at City Hall, to find out if the Civil Service order of his job description changed.

“His answer to me was: ‘That’s the way the mayor wants it. The salary is not going to change anyway, so why does it matter,’” Johnson said.

Issues then began to arise his second week, when he was asked to work at the city’s dog shelter, after reporting to the construction unit.

Johnson, who was on light duty at the time, was ordered to clean dog cages. He claimed no one on light duty has ever been asked to report to the shelter because there is no restrictive work available.

After having to go to City Hall to retrieve his doctor’s note, Johnson returned and was asked to receive the dogs, some of which can be “vicious.”

After telling the woman in charge of the shelter he wasn’t comfortable performing that duty, he was then asked to sit in a chair in the parking lot to watch the cars, but that turned into a fiasco, Johnson testified.

A temporary employee at the shelter began hassling him.

“He came by and he began to ridicule me to shout out profanities,” Johnson said. “He got in face.”

Johnson then called the police and was told by a city official to leave for the day.

When he returned the next day, more cops.

Johnson was told he was marked off the payroll when he reported to the construction department, but he refused to leave the building.

“I insisted we wouldn’t be leaving the facilities because we were there to work and we weren’t going to leave,” Johnson said of his and London’s actions. “The police felt that he had no authority to tell us to leave the facility.”

Meyers filed a civilian complaint against Johnson for trespassing, but the case was dismissed because he never showed up to court, Johnson testified.

On Sept. 28 — the following day after the brush up with cops — the city held a disciplinary hearing officiated by then-Business Administrator Anthony Roberts.

Roberts ruled London and Johnson be terminated, which was confirmed at another disciplinary hearing the following week.

During the process of the employees’ appeal, the city agreed to bring them back on by amending the discipline to an 180-day suspension, the maximum penalty allowed under civil service. They were reinstated in April, but Butler said the employees are still owed a year of back pay.

Jackson — like Johnson — was also shuffled around after Mack assumed office.

During Mack’s transition of power, Jackson testified he was transferred to the administration’s office after serving as the city’s director of Public Works from 1999 to 2010.

A couple weeks later, Jackson was demoted to a coordinator in the Trenton Water Works billing department.

Shortly after, he said a friend of Mack and worker on the mayor’s campaign approached him.

“He said and he referred to me as EJ, ‘You’ll be OK, You’ll be OK here. You’ll be fine here with the mayor,’” Jackson said.

“I took that to mean he was an ally of the mayor and that he at least thought my position was secured, that I would not be put out the door,” he said.

Before the meeting Jackson, who is the current Plainfield director of public works and urban development, does not believe the investigation surrounding the Trenton Water Works will hurt his campaign for mayor.

“We did our extreme best to make sure we had in the most rigorous policies that we could at the time to combat the issues that were going on,” Jackson said during his tenure as public works director in Trenton. “As (the issues) were brought forward, we let the disciplinary process really lead us and guide us with the attorneys that we had in place. As we were aware of the cases, as we had evidence to support them, and we would take the proper disciplinary charges.”

Jackson said he was happy with what they accomplished.

“Can we do more? Absolutely. Will we do more? Absolutely,” he said. “But it’s evolution, the more we do people try to more aggressive against the system and we will keep maintaining as we go forward.”

About the Author

Originally from Webster, N.Y., David has been a reporter in N.J. for the past three years (first in Phillipsburg and now in Trenton).He is a Temple alum who interned at the Philadelphia Daily News. Reach the author at dfoster@trentonian.com
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